Flood-torn Mozambique is holding its breath to see if more heavy rain will follow. Rising river levels have already displaced many of its citizens and flooding has destroyed houses, roads, bridges and crops.
United Nations agencies said about 80 000 people in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have been affected by flooding since the start of summer.
Mozambique has been worst hit, with about 72 000 people affected. Those living in the Zambezi valley and along other rivers, such as the Buzi and Pungue rivers, were forced to evacuate their homes to escape the flooding.
Villagers in the Zambezi valley had to stand by as they watched their homes being submerged and their crops destroyed. Now they depend on relief agencies for handouts to feed their children.
Heavy rains have come earlier than usual this year. With several weeks of the traditional rainy season still to come — and more rain forecast for the Zambezi valley — increased flooding is feared, said international aid agency Oxfam. Mozambique’s cyclone season is also due to start soon.
The relief agency warned that flooding in Mozambique is likely to worsen in the coming weeks as more rain and cyclones are forecast.
“Mozambicans have become used to big floods every five to six years,” said Remko Berkhout, relief agency Concern’s country director in Mozambique, adding that with water levels already higher than last year and the rainy season just beginning, Mozambique might face its worst floods in history.
“There were floods in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996, 2000. There were also floods last year. To the people living here it might seem unlikely that the water levels will rise any higher,” he says.
The government says this year’s heavy rains and floods are worse than the devastating floods of 2000, although the number of lives lost are not comparable.
Many lives, however, have been saved by the swift action of both relief agencies and the Mozambican government, which has done an excellent job of providing relief. The government has worked hard to move people away from flood-hit areas.
Oxfam said the government has worked effectively with the National Institute of Disaster Management to help evacuate more than 10 000 families in the central provinces of Tete, Sofala and Zambezia.
But the agency is concerned about the long-term fate of poor farmers in the region and the outlook for food security. “Donors need to be generous in the long term as well as with initial funding for the emergency response. People were just beginning to rebuild the little they had after last year’s floods. They now have to start again,” said Michael Tizora, humanitarian coordinator of Oxfam International in Mozambique.